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Trinity

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"Gloriana, allow me to introduce you to the rest of my family, and the guards that I brought along with me." I smiled at her and was happy to be dropping the formal attitude somewhat. "You already know Dietrich, who started as a friend and has joined us as an ally and confidant, not to mention he is mated to my guard and friend Shawn. Then there is his twin, Shane."

"Oooh, I do love twins." She winked at him.

"He is mated to a feline." I giggled at the childish pout on her face.

"Oh pooey."

"Then David." She looked hopeful for a moment. "Also mated." She deflated.

"Didn't you bring me anyone that was unmated?" She laughed. "I have a consort seat to fill."

That shocked me, last I knew she had a consort. Did she break it off with him because of that day I called her. I let it slide for now, I would ask her when we were alone.

"I believe a couple of my other guards are unmated." I thought for a moment. "I don't know them as well."

"Throw me a line here, Trinity, a Queen needs a little help."

"Oh my, Glory, since when did you become so thirsty?" Dietrich laughed at her and a few others chuckled as well, all the while the joke clearly went over the heads of the others.

"I thought she was talking about mates, why are you talking about thirsty, Dietrich? Do you need blood or something? Do the Fae drink blood?" Grandfather looked quite confused for a moment and that just made most of us laugh even more. "What?"

"Don't worry about it right now, Dad, I will explain it to you later." I have a hard time believing that my Dad knew what that comment meant.

"I am sorry, let us move on now. I will stop. Please introduce the rest of your family." Gloriana smiled and nodded to me.

I did as she asked and introduced us all. I started with my brothers and their families and went up the family tree, so next came my parents and Reece's mom, and then last was my Grandfather. Everyone was feeling a lot less nervous now that they could see that the Queen was a lot nicer than they had expected her to be.

"I really am happy to see you all, and I am glad you will be spending Yule with us. I absolutely adore children. And unfortunately, Star and Artem were not able to make it this year. I do so wish they would have. I wanted to meet my great, great, great, great nephew. That is a long generational gap though, isn't it. However, did you hear? Star's mother was found last year. I don't know how much you talk to her. I am so happy for her, her family has been healed."

I think that Gloriana realized that most of the people were still afraid at the moment. She just didn't match up to what you expected when first meeting her.

"Come now, no need to be afraid. Let's all sit and chat before we have some lunch. We will break the ice a little more, and then we can start working on this mystery that is your family tree."

I could see that she was intrigued by the whole thing. It wasn't often that you got to see this kind of thing happen. A mystery involving your entire set of people and a powerful ally. I am sure that Gloriana was eager to delve into it.

Once we were all seated comfortably and ready to talk, Gloriana jumped to her feet again as if she had been burned by the fire burning in her hearth.

"Oh no, this place is not baby proofed." Her hands were on her cheeks, and she looked mortified. "I will fix this right now."

With a wave of her hand, a large gate appeared in front of the fire and similar gates appeared in front of the glass bookshelf doors. Everything that was dangerous or that would harm or scare a baby was blocked off.

"There, all better. You can let them explore a little now. I actually have some baby toys they can use. I see my nieces and nephews from time to time so I know how to keep them safe and entertain them." She was grinning as she waved a hand again and made some toys float from inside a cabinet.

"Hehe, toy toy." Rika squealed delightedly in her adorable voice.

"Toy flo me, toy flo me."

"No Reagan, you can't make the toy float to you." I told him calmly as he reached with both hands.

"Yes Mama, toy flo me." Reagan sounded a little more forceful this time.

"No Rea, toy flo me." Rika argued with her brother, and that was when a tiny little blue light surrounded both of them. Two of the toys that Gloriana had held with her magic floated over to my children.

They both settled back down and started to play with their newly acquired toys.

"Well, I would say that they have quite a bit of magic." Gloriana smiled as she placed the rest of the toys on the floor. Once we all had placed our children in a circle on the floor, the conversation resumed.

"Yes, I know they do. The thing is, we had given them a binding bracelet so they wouldn't hurt themselves." I was confused and worried since I didn't want them to get hurt.

"Ahh, I can imagine that it was a warlock made magic item? Those don't work inside the compound. These lands are technically not part of the human world. Those that don't know to expect us here will pass right through us. This is the true essence of the land of Faerie. We may have given up the realm to the shadows that wanted it, but we took the magic with us. Things such as magic tools from non-Fae origin will have no effect here. I do apologize." She truly did look like she was sorry about it. "If you would like, I can give you a binding charm that will safely keep their magic at bay until they are old enough to use it. That is what we do to the young ones here."

"I would appreciate that." I was still looking at Reagan and Rika and trying to figure out how to raise babies that showed magic at such a young age.

"Absolutely. I will have them prepared for you right away. With that she took a pen and paper from her side table and wrote a message that disappeared in a swirl of wind. That was quite interesting to see. "Now, where were we?" She smiled at us all, ready to talk about everything.

Before we got to the real reason we were all here, we spoke amongst ourselves and got to know the Queen a little better. They all found out how obsessed she was about babies and about her having tried for millennia, but not having a baby.

"There was a time when I thought Dietrich would break my curse, but alas ten years and no children. And here he is with a mate and four children. Clearly the problem is me." We all saw the wave of anger and jealousy that washed over Shawn when he heard those words, but he managed to keep it in. That was good, I didn't want him to get hurt.

By the time that the conversation progressed everyone had spoken to and gotten to know Gloriana except for Grandfather. He was still nervous and weary, and I think he just really wanted to find out what was really going on in our family tree. He was an impatient man at the best of times, and right now he was worried about his entire family. Poor Grandfather, I wished I could do more for him.

After the laughter from funny anecdotes and stories about the babies died down, I thought he was going to demand that we move the discussion along immediately, but he was still just watching silently. He was always doing his best for us all, and I think it was time for me to do something for him. We shouldn't keep him waiting anymore. In truth, I know that all of us were more than just a little curious. It was time to find out the truth, it was time to find our family.